Realize
by rps-lizardspock
Summary: Barney wakes up one morning and things aren't how they're supposed to be. Spoilers through Benefits.
1. Chapter 1

"So, Barney," Ted said to Barney as the two of them sat together in their usual booth at MacClaren's after everyone else had gone home. "When are you going to tell her?"

"Ted, really, I don't want to talk about this," Barney answered, swallowing down the rest of his scotch.

"Barney..."

"No, I can't tell her. She doesn't feel the same way. You should have heard her..."

~*~

_"He's not like you, you know?" Robin asks, not noticing the sad way Barney shakes his head. "Besides we're friends, I don't want to screw that up by getting involved. Dating friends never works out... So, uh, you wanna get a taco?"_

~*~

"You seriously told her that you love tacos?"

"Ted..."

"Right, not the point," Ted conceded. "So what's the plan? Be in love with her forever and never tell her how you feel?"

"That, Theodore, is exactly the plan," Barney answered standing up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have meetings all day tomorrow so I have to get up early. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you," Ted said back and watched Barney walk out of the bar.

* * *

_If you just realized what I just realized, then we'd be perfect for each other and we'd never find another. Just realize what I just realized. We'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now..._

Barney groaned as his alarm clock blasted the song at him from his bed-side table. He rolled over, throwing his pillow over his head to try and drown out the words.

_Take time to realize, oh, oh, I'm on your side, didn't I, didn't I tell you? Take time to realize, this all can pass you by. Didn't I tell you?..._

Barney finally had enough. He rolled over and nearly broke his alarm clock by slamming the off button so hard. He resigned himself to get out of bed, remembering why his alarm had gone off so early this morning; meetings all day. Looking around something felt odd, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it so he shrugged it off and proceeded to get ready for work.

The strange feeling he'd felt so early in the morning didn't fade as the day progressed, though. He felt more and more like something was wrong, but he couldn't place it. So he went along his day, sitting through boring meeting after boring meeting. He finally got a break and decided to see what Marshall was up to and see if he could talk him into drinking beer on the roof with him. The strange feeling he'd had all morning intensified when he walked up to Marshall's desk and saw someone else, someone that he'd never seen before, sitting in Marshall's chair. Gone were all the trinkets that Lily got him to display at work, along with all of Marshall's photos... including the one of his and Lily's wedding.

"Um, excuse me," Barney said clearing his throat. He was a little surprised when the guy nearly fell out of his seat in shock.

"Mr. Stinson! Hi. Um, hello. What can I do for you?" He asked hurriedly.

"Who the hell are you?" Barney asked rudely.

"Um, Thompson, Sir, Henry Thompson," he answered and Barney noted that he looked more than a little afraid.

"Great, Thompson, Sir Henry Thompson. Where's Marshall, and why are you at his desk?"

"Marshall, Sir? I don't...I don't know a Marshall. Um, this has been my desk for the past three months, but if you'd like me to find Marshall and ask him to sit here, I'd be more than happy to oblige, Sir."

"What's with all the 'Sir's? And quit looking at me like I just kicked your puppy. Now focus. .Marshall?" Barney repeated the question slowly; as if hoping it would make Thompson understand him better.

"Marsh... Sir, I don't know who..."

"Marshall Erickson? C'mon! He's hard to miss. Tall guy, kinda looks like Big Foot?" Thompson just shook his head with the same scared look on his face. "Fine!" Barney finally conceded. "I'll find him myself while I think about whether I'm going to fire you or not." Barney swore he heard Thompson whimper as he walked away, but ignored him because now things were acting weird and it wasn't just a feeling anymore. He tried calling Marshall's cell phone but got the message saying the phone number was not in service. Frowning, he decided to call Lily's school.

"Yes, hello, can I speak to Lily Aldrin," Barney asked when the school secretary answered.

"Who may I ask is calling?" She asked sweetly.

"Barney Stinson," he answered before being put on hold.

"Mr. Stinson?" The secretary asked as she came back on the line after he'd waited for what felt like five minutes. At Barney's acknowledgment she continued. "I'm afraid Ms. Aldrin said she doesn't know a Barney Stinson. She's terribly busy at the moment and can't be bothered by prank phone calls."

"Prank phone calls? But... she knows who I am. She's one of my best friends. Could you just put me through?"

"I'm sorry sir, but no. Have a nice day." And she hung up, leaving Barney staring stupidly at his phone. Okay, so now something really weird was going on. First Marshall and now Lily? Barney decided to try Ted's number next.

"Ted!" Barney exclaimed after Ted picked up on the third ring. "You don't know how happy I am to hear your voice!"

"Who is...?" Ted began, but was cut off by Barney.

"Something weird is going on, man. First Marshall doesn't show up for work and some spaz, Henry Thompson, is sitting at his desk, then when I called Lily's school she refused to talk to me, claiming she doesn't know who I am. I mean, can you believe that?"

"Um," Ted began again. "Who is this?"

"Seriously, man? It's Barney."

"Barney...?"

"Barney Stinson? Your best friend?" Barney prompted.

"Marshall's my best friend. I don't even know who you are."

"Ted, c'mon, that's not funny."

"I'm sorry, I don't know how you got this number, or how you know who my friends are, but I'm hanging up now. Don't call back or I'll have to get the police involved."

"What?! Ted! I..." Barney began, but was cut off by a dial tone. He sat there staring blankly at his phone. What the hell was going on?


	2. Chapter 2

He left work, shouting over his shoulder that he wasn't feeling well so he was going home. He only vaguely registered the way everyone jumped out of his way as he strode through the hall. He had to get to the bottom of this... this... whatever this was. Practical jokes are one thing, but even his friends wouldn't carry it on this long. He didn't know exactly where he was going, just that he needed to be somewhere other than work. He walked for about an hour when he saw something that made his heart skip a beat: Robin. But no, it couldn't be Robin, because this chick was standing out in front of a restaurant with a news crew from Metro News 1 in front of her. He walked up to this not!Robin.

"Scherbatsky?" He asked, not daring to believe that she somehow would know who he was.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"What are... what are you doing here?" He asked, motioning to the restaurant behind her.

"Just a story on the best burger in New York. Can you believe the crap that they'll air on tv just to fill a time slot?" She laughed nervously. "So what," she continued. "Are you a fan of the channel or something? Cause if you are, you're probably the first."

Barney closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. First Marshall, then Lily, then Ted, and now Robin didn't to know who he was either. This day just couldn't get any worse.

"Yeah, you could say I'm a fan. I used to watch every night."

"Oh, well, cool," Robin said enthusiastically. "Hey, I gotta get back to work or my boss is going to kill me, and between you and me, I really can't afford to lose this job or I'll lose my apartment, not to mention my boyfriend would have a fit... Aaaand I have no idea why I just told a total stranger that," she laughed nervously. "Anyway, thanks for watching." She walked off, completely missing the hurt look on Barney's face when she said 'boyfriend' and 'complete stranger'.

"Dreaming," he concluded out loud after Robin had gone. He turned to the first person that walked past him. "I'm dreaming! That has to be it. And you, ma'am are just a figment of my imagination! There's no other explanation. But how do I prove I'm dreaming?" He asked before walking away and receiving an odd look from the woman. "Pain," he continued aloud. "You don't feel pain in your dreams." He looked around for a moment, trying to decide the best way to check his theory. He turned towards the building, deciding that punching the wall would generate enough pain to correctly test his hypothesis. He swung back and smashed his hand into the bricks, screaming when pain laced through his hand.

"Right," he concluded. "Not a dream, then."

He was at a loss for what to do now. He wandered around aimlessly for a few hours, holding his now injured hand and thought, momentarily, about just going home and waiting for this, whatever, to end, but decided against it. Instead he wound up going to the one place that never let him down: MacClaren's.

On his way there he decided to call James. What were the odds that his own brother didn't remember him?

"James!" Barney said with relief after his brother answered his phone. "James, it's Barney."

"I know who it is. What kind of trouble are you in now? I'm not driving all the way out there again just to bail you out of jail. Have one of your little minions do it or something."

"Jail… what? No, can't a guy just call his brother for no reason whatsoever?"

"Umm, no. What's the deal, Barney? I haven't heard from you in six months so why the phone call now?"

"I… I haven't talked to you in that long? But, you're my brother."

"It's funny how you bring that up every time you need something. Now spill or hang up. Tom and I have somewhere to be."

"I don't need anything. I was honestly just calling you," Barney answered, hurt.

"Great, well if that's it, I'm going to hang up now…"

"James, wait!"

"What is it?" Barney heard James' sigh.

"Why don't we… why aren't we close? We used to be close."

"Why don't you tell me, Barney? You're the one who's too busy with his secretive job and his bimbos. So busy you couldn't be bothered to show up for my wedding."

"What? No, that's wrong… James, listen, this is going to sound crazy, but I woke up this morning and everything was wrong. I went to your wedding. Me, Ted, Marshall, Lily and Robin. We all went. Of course, they don't remember who I am, so why would they have been to your wedding?"

"Barney have you been drinking? It's too early to be drinking already. We've been over this."

"What? No, I'm not drinking, I'm serious. Last night I was at MacCleran's with Ted and this morning I woke up and went to work and my friends didn't know who I was."

"I wasn't aware there were people in the world awesome enough to be your friends, Barney," James replied sarcastically. "Now seriously, stop drinking, get a cab, go home and sleep it off. You can give me a call again when you're not crazy."

"James, I really…" Barney was cut off when James disconnected the call. Barney sighed loudly. Not only were his friends unaware of his existence, but somehow he managed to alienate himself from his brother, the one constant he'd ever had throughout his life. Things were definitely not looking up.

When he finally reached the bar and walked in he didn't know what to expect, but wasn't overly shocked when Carl didn't recognize him. He ordered a scotch and went to sit down at his usual booth.

"Come on, Stinson, think!" He said out loud to himself, ignoring all the stares he was getting from the other patrons. "There's got to be some sort of logical explanation here!" He tried to come up with some sort of reason for this _Twilight Zone_ world that he woke up in this morning, but was coming up with nothing. Just when he'd given up trying to come up with an explanation and see if he could just drink away this stupid nightmare, Ted walked through the door. Barney shot up so fast he startled the young couple that was sitting at the table near him.

"Ted!" He yelled, waving Ted over to him.

"Uh, yeah?" Ted asked when he reached Barney. "Can I help you with something?"

Barney stared at Ted for a minute before answering. The reason for his staring was that Ted looked like crap. His usually gelled up to messy perfection hair was ungelled and sticking up all over the place and he'd let his beard and mustache grow out. It was decidedly not a good look for him. Ignoring the comments Barney wanted to make about Ted's appearance he said, "Ted, it's me. It's Barney!"

"Barney…? Oh, the guy who called earlier?" Ted asked. "Dude, what are you, stalking me?"

"No, I'm not stalking you. Listen, I know this is going to sound strange, but I know you."

"You know me? Right. How much have you had to drink? It's only 5 o'clock, you know."

"I'm not drunk! Why do people keep assuming that? Ted, listen to me!" Barney demanded, sounding desperate. "We're friends. I've known you for years. I woke up this morning and everything was wrong. None of you know who I am and I just need you to believe me right now because I'm kinda freaking out. I know I sound crazy, and maybe I am, but I need you to believe me! Ask me anything; something only a really good friend would know."

"Okay..." Ted agreed skeptically. "What's my favorite color?"

"You're favorite color?" Barney asked. "Seriously? I'm trying to prove to you that we're friends and you ask me what you're favorite color is? It's red. It's really 'salmon', but you got tired of being teased for your favorite color being pink, so now you tell everyone that it's red. Am I right?"

"Um, yeah... that's amazingly detailed, but that doesn't prove any..."

"You're parents were divorced for years before they told you because you're all a bunch of avoiders and never want to talk about important things. Now your mom's with some guy named Clint who your father goes fishing with. You met Marshall and Lily in college and the first day you met Marshall he was so high he thought you were the dean. You still think the first time that you met Lily was when you kissed her at a social and you refer to her as "unreasonably small mouth opening girl" despite the fact that Marshall said it was some other chick... Ummm, when you met Robin she was wearing a green top and she threw a drink in your face because one of her friends had just broken up with her boyfriend and you told her she could to make it look good to her friend..."

"You were right until that last part. I don't know any Robin," Ted said looking a little creeped out.

"Right! Of course you don't know Robin! I never introduced you to her here in bizzaro world! But anyway, was that enough to convince you that I know you?"

"Fine," Ted relented. "Suppose I do believe you, which I'm not saying I do, but I have nothing better to do right now and you seem relatively harmless. So, assuming you're not insane, what exactly do you want me to do about it?"

"I don't know," Barney said with a sigh, sitting back down at the booth. He looked up at Ted when he sat down across from him. "You really don't remember me? We met here. Well, in the bathroom. I was working on some pickup line about my deaf brother, then later I sat down with you at that booth in the back and told you that I was going to show you how to live. You really don't remember?"

"I don't, dude. I'm sorry," Ted said apologetically.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ok, let's just think about this," Ted slurred a bit, finishing off his third drink. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up and everything was... wrong?"

"Well I was here with you and we were talking about... stuff... and then I went home and went to bed. Nothing strange."

"Well what were we talking about?" Ted asked.

"What does that matter?"

"I don't know, but assuming you're not just completely crazy, something weird is going on. Anything that happened before you woke up this morning could be of importance. Don't you watch Sci-Fi?"

"Fine," Barney gave in. "We were talking about howiminlovewithrobin."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"We were talking about how I'm in love with Robin, okay?"

"Robin? The girl you introduced me to?"

"Yeah," Barney answered.

"Right, and does this Robin know you're in love with her?"

"Of course not!" Barney said. "And it's going to stay that way."

"Oookay," Ted said, raising his eyebrow at Barney. "So you're just going to be in love with her forever and never tell her how you feel?"

"What did you just say?" Barney asked, his head snapping up to look at Ted.

"I said, 'so you're just...'"

"No, I know what you said. But that's exactly what you said last night."

"Great!" Ted said with much more enthusiasm than Barney felt was warranted. "So events are repeating. This is good! I still don't know what to do, but that sounds like a good sign."

"Awesome," Barney said, though he didn't sound like he meant it. "So I'm stuck here where no one knows who I am, including the girl I'm in love with. I have no friends, well, that I know of, I called my brother and apparently I'm a jackass who can't be bothered to keep in touch, and at work I'm some evil boss that everyone's afraid of. Just perfect. You know, yesterday my life was awesome. I had money, booze and bimbos. What else could a guy ask for?"

"Well obviously your life wasn't as awesome as you thought it was. Otherwise why would you be here?"

"What are you saying? That this is something to teach me about the important things in life and make me realize that I need something more than one night stands?"

"Well, yeah, maybe."

"That's ridiculous, Ted! Why would I need more than bimbos? You know, you're starting to sound a lot like Lily. Where is she anyway? You're not usually here by yourself, are Lily and Marshall meeting you here?"

"Well Marshall will be here soon, but Lily doesn't come anymore. Not since before she left for San Francisco."

"What?!" Barney gasped. "But... but they got married! After she came back they got married. I married them!"

"Um, no you didn't. We don't know you remember? Anyway, after she came back things weren't the same with them. Marshall started dating other girls and they never got back together."

Barney sat there in shock for a while. He knew that he was the one that stopped Marshall from hooking up every time he had the chance after Lily had left and that he had convinced Lily to come back to New York, but she'd managed to get back here without his interference. They were soul mates; surely there were forces in the universe stronger than him that should have brought the two of them back together. What kind of chance did anyone else in the world have if Marshall and Lily, the ultimate couple, couldn't make it work? His thoughts were interupted by the familiar voice that he heard coming from the bar. He looked up and gasped, earning a strange look from Ted.

"Dude, what's wrong?" He asked.

"See that girl over there ordering a drink?"

"Umm, yeah," Ted answered. "So what?"

"Ted, that's Robin!"

"Robin? Your Robin is the Metro News 1 chick?"

"You watch Metro News 1?" Barney asked, surprised.

"Well yeah… I get bored. And I mean, look at her, she's so…"

"Ted, focus, I don't have time for this right now. In my world I introduced you to her and you guys dated for a year, but I don't have a year to wait, so just stay with me, okay?"

"Right," Ted agreed. "Okay, sorry. So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I don't know. Give me a second to think."

"Hey, Ted." Barney, being so focused on his current dilemma, never noticed Marshall walk up to the table. He looked up in shock, eyes widening a little. Barney briefly wondered why his friends where seemingly incapable of keeping up their appearances without him around.

"Marshall, hey," Ted responded.

"Who's your friend," Marshall asked as he sat down, eyeing Barney who resumed staring over at Robin.

"He's not my friend. Well, I guess he's my friend. He's my friend, but I don't know who he is. It's complicated. His name's Barney… there's a very good chance he's insane."

"Oh. Okay," Marshall shrugged. "Umm, is he alright?"

"What?" Ted asked, looking back to Barney and noticing him staring towards the bar. "Yeah, I think so. See that chick at the bar? He's sorta in love with her… but not in love with _her_, her. It's complicated.

"Barney," Ted said, snapping his fingers at Barney to get his attention. "Just go up there and talk to her."

"Psh, no, that's stupid. I can't just go talk to her."

"Well why not?"

"Ted, Ted, Ted, have I taught you nothing?"

"Well, actually…" Ted was cut off.

"You can't just walk up to a chick and talk to her. You have to have a plan."

"You have to have a plan to talk go up and talk to her?" Marshall asked skeptically. "Is he serious?" He asked Ted. Ted shrugged in reply.

"Marshall, please. You lost Lily, no way am I listening to anything you say."

"What?" Marshall asked. "How the hell would you know…"

"Marshall, don't," Ted cut him off. "Like I said, it's complicated. I'll explain all of it to you later." Marshall still looked skeptical, but nodded anyway.

"Okay, Barney's crazy, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. What am I going to do?" Barney asked, putting his head down on the table. He missed Marshall's glance at Ted and Ted shaking his head once again.

"Hey," Barney's head popped up so fast he was lucky he didn't give himself whiplash. Robin was now standing at the head of the table.

"Hi," Barney responded dumbly.

"You're that fan from earlier today, aren't you?" Robin asked.

"Yeah… th... that's me. Barney, is my name."

"Right," Robin laughed. "This is the second time you've been in the same place as me today. You're not stalking me, are you?"

"No, he's stalking me," Ted answered, yelping when Barney kicked him under the table.

"Anyway, I saw you sitting over here and thought I'd say hi. Have to keep the few fans that we have, you know?"

"Yeah, wouldn't want to turn my back on a fellow news… lover…" he agreed awkwardly, mentally kicking himself for being so lame. He smiled softly to himself, though, when he earned a laugh from Robin.

"Well, I should go. My boyfriend will be here any minute now." Robin went to walk away, but was stopped by Barney's hand on her arm.

"Hey, what happened to your eye?" Barney asked, now forgetting his two 'friends' that were sitting at the table with him. He hadn't noticed earlier, probably thanks to all the make-up she had to wear for the broadcast, but there was an almost healed bruise right under her eye.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just fell last week. I'm really clumsy," she giggled nervously.

"No you're not," Barney said back. "You're probably the least clumsy person I know."

"You know? I don't know you."

"No, you don't know… I mean, I know, you know, I don't _know_ you know you…" Anymore of Barney's awkwardness was cut off by the tall man that walked up to the table.

"What's going on here?" He inquired gruffly.

"Nothing, Mike. We were just talking. He's a fan of the channel."

"A fan?" Mike spat back. "There are no fans of Metro News 1."

"Actually, I watch it everyday," Ted piped in, but quickly went back to observing the scene quietly with Marshall when everyone glared at him.

"C'mon, Robin," Mike said, grabbing her arm. "We're leaving now."

"Hey, wait a minute," Barney protested, not liking the way he was gripping her arm. This may not be his Robin, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let anyone treat _any_ Robin Scherbatsky like that. "Maybe you should ease off her arm a little, buddy."

"And maybe you should mind your own business," Mike said. Barney stood up as they started to walk away.

"No, seriously, let go of her arm," he said, grabbing his arm and sounding braver then he felt.

He never saw the fist flying towards him before his world went black.


	4. Chapter 4

_If you just realized what I just realized, then we'd be perfect for each other and we'd never find another. Just realize what I just realized. We'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other now..._

Barney groaned as his alarm clock blasted the song at him from his bed-side table. He rolled over, throwing a pillow over his head to try and drown out the words and trying to figure out what happened last night. Suddenly it all came back to him. Bizzaro world where no one knew him, MacClaren's, Robin's... _boyfriend_. He shot out of bed and finally registered the song streaming from his alarm clock.

_Take time to realize, oh, oh, I'm on your side, didn't I, didn't I tell you? Take time to realize, this all can pass you by. Didn't I tell you?..._

The same song that woke him up yesterday… what were the odds? He grabbed up his phone and checked the date. It was yesterday... again.

_But I can't spell it out for you, no it's never gonna be that simple. No, I can't spell it out for you. If you just realize..._

He slammed off his alarm clock and gasped as pain shot through his hand. He didn't even stop to think about why his hand would still be injured as he dialed Ted's number.

"Barney?" Ted asked tiredly. Barney's heart leapt.

"Ted?! Ted, oh it's so good to hear your voice... wait, you remember me right? And not just because I met you yesterday, but because I met you seven years ago, right?"

"Barney, it's 6 in the morning and it's too early for your insanity. Just because you had to get up early this morning doesn't mean we all do."

"What? Oh, meetings today! Yeah, I can be late. Get dressed, Ted, I'm coming over!" Barney disconnected the call before Ted could protest and quickly threw on jeans and a sweatshirt... he didn't have time to get to the kind of perfection that wearing a suit entailed. Right now he knew what he had to do and it was more important than looking awesome.

On his way out of the building he called up James. Getting his voice mail he left the message: "James! Hey! Sorry I'm calling so early. I had the strangest day yesterday and I wanted to let you know that I love you, man. You're the best brother a guy could have. Give me a call later. It's been too long since we've hung out. Bye." He smiled as he disconnected the call. There was no way he was ever going to let himself drift away from his brother.

After hailing a cab and paying him extra to break all the speed limits, he made it to Ted's apartment and started banging on the door. When Ted opened the door Barney launched himself into Ted's arms.

"Uh, Barney?" Ted questioned, thrown off by Barney's sudden need for affection.

"Ted," Barney said, finally moving away. "You have no idea how happy I am that you're here, and that you're here with Robin and not Marshall, because he and Lily are together and in Dowisetrepla like they're supposed to be!"

"Barney, what the hell are you..."

"Ted, I had the weirdest day yesterday!"

"Uh, I was with you most of the day, and no you didn't."

"No, not _yesterday_, yesterday. _Today_, yesterday. See?"

"What?" Obviously Ted didn't. "And what happened to your eye?"

"My eye?" Barney had almost forgotten he was punched yesterday by Robin's _boyfriend_. He didn't take time to wonder why his eye would be bruising still if the day was starting over, though. "Oh that? It's not important. Listen, yesterday morning, or well, this morning, when I woke up everything was wrong. You guys didn't know who I was. Marshall was still living here with you because he and Lily never got married after she left him to go to San Francisco. You had mass amounts of facial hair, which, btw, not a good look for you, and Robin... Robin! Where's Robin? I need to talk to her." Ted had to grab Barney's arm to stop him storming into Robin's room.

"Barney, you're not making any sense."

"No, don't you see? It all makes sense. I have to tell Robin that I love her."

"What happened to never telling her that you're in love with her? That was the plan last night."

"No, that was the plan two nights ago before Robin had a boyfriend who is a total jerk because I never introduced her to you. I know you all think I'm a bit self-centered, but things were bad, _wrong_, because you never met me. Things are better now for everyone and I need to talk to Robin, because I've realized that I can't just keep focusing only on work and bimbos for the rest of my life, because I'll miss important things like meeting random awesome guys in bathrooms who become my best friend and then people's lives will suck without my awesomeness. Don't you see? I have to tell Robin, because I can't let her end up with some jerk like Mike. I can't not tell her, because what if this is one of those important things that was supposed to happen and my, whatever, yesterday was trying to tell me that?"

"Ok, so let me get this straight. You had a dream last night that we didn't know who you were. Our lives were screwed and Robin was dating some douche. Now that you're awake you think it means your subconscious was telling you to man up and finally admit your feelings for Robin?"

"Ted, it wasn't a dream. But yeah, basically. You and Marshall and Lily, your problems are easy to fix just by me being here. But Robin... I have to tell her."

"Right. Barney, go home."

"What?!" Barney exclaimed. "Haven't you been listening, Ted? I have to talk to Robin."

"I have been listening, and I think you're crazy!"

"Oh, sure, _now_ you think I'm crazy. Yesterday, when there was a very good chance that I might _actually_ be crazy, you didn't think I was crazy, but now when I'm not crazy you think I'm crazy."

"I didn't think you were crazy?"

"Well, maybe a little, but you tried to help me. You didn't actually achieve anything, but at least you tried. It really meant a lot to me."

"Well of course I tried to help. What are friends for?"

"Best friends?" Barney asked, now a bit side tracked.

"Barney," Ted said warningly.

"Right, anyway. You didn't know who the hell I was and you still tried. You're a good person, Ted Mosby."

"Well, thanks. I'm glad you think so highly of dream me." Ted smiled proudly and Barney chose not to point out again that it wasn't a dream because he was having a hard time trying to convince himself of it.

"But that doesn't change the fact that you should leave. I can't let you make this decision because of a dream you had. Go home and think about it some more."

"I can't do that, Ted. Believe me, I know what I'm doing. She might laugh in my face, but I still have to tell her." He started walking toward Robin's room again. "Robin!" He shouted, but stopped when Ted started speaking again.

"You're sure about this?"

"Never been more sure about anything in my life. Now if you'll excuse me." He went to walk into Robin's room, but was stopped when she came out, hair rumpled from sleep and in her pajamas.

"What the hell is going on in here? It's like 7 in the morning!"

"6:48, actually," Ted piped in. Robin just glared at him until he shrugged and walked into the kitchen.

"Robin," Barney sighed out in relief. He walked over to her and enveloped her in a hug. After a few awkward pats on the back from her he let go.

"Barney, are you okay? What happened to you?" Robin asked. All her annoyance was gone now. It was replaced with concern... she'd never seen Barney like this before… and the nice bruise forming on his eye was turning her on just a bit.

"Yesterday you're… there was this guy… but it's not important now, because I'm good. No, I'm great because you're here and you're not with Mike, so everything's great."

"Mike? Who's...?"

"Robin, there's something I have to tell you."

"Something that couldn't wait until a decent hour of the day?"

"No, something I need to tell you now, because I've built my nerve up and I've decided now is the time and if I don't say it now I may never say it and I can't go through another day like yesterday, so I'm just going to say it and then I'm going to leave. And I don't want you to say anything now and I understand if you never say anything because I'm pretty sure I know how you feel about it and that's ok. So I'm just going to say it and then I'm going to go to work, or something, okay?" He paused for her reaction.

"Um, okay."

"Right, Robin," he took a deep breath to try and calm himself a bit. "This is going to sound insane, but I promise you it's true. I love you. I know it's hard to believe, because it's me, but when I was in the hospital last summer I realized I have these insane feelings for you and after the day I had yesterday I realized that I had to tell you. And so I have. And I'm going to leave and let you… think about it, or, whatever. Or, you know, not think about it, that's fine, too. Okay. I said it… and I'm leaving now… bye," he finished awkwardly.

Barney walked quickly out of the apartment, leaving a stunned Robin behind. He let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding as the door shut. He leaned against the door for a moment before starting off down the hall.

"Barney!" He whipped around as Robin came rushing out the door towards him. "I know you said you didn't want me to say anything, and I'll go with that for now, but…" she kissed him briefly. "We'll talk later, okay?"

Barney was almost too stunned to react. "Umm, yeah… yeah, absolutely. I uhh, I have… work."

"Of course," she responded. "You still have to suit up and everything. We'll talk soon." And with that she turned back around and went back into her and Ted's apartment, leaving Barney shocked, but smiling after her.

Yesterday he thought that he had stepped into some nightmare and he wanted nothing more then to get out of it. He walked away now thinking that if this too were a dream, that it was much better than yesterday's and he couldn't wait to see how it played out.

**END ?**


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